Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1887-09-14

bUcHue A0ut W8s y AtHCuVt, bUt AOW Oxtet
have ou guests come In TO gather mp tbs
cold, freezing sorrows OF our life, kindline
them into illumination aud warmth ant
good cheer. He who opens his house tt
Christian hospitality turns those who are
strangers into friends. Years will 20 By
and there will be great changes in you,
and there will be a great change In them
Some day you will be sitting in loneliness,
watching q bereavement, and you will gel
a letter in a strange handwriting. and
you will look at the postoffice
mark and say: "Why, I don't
know anybody living in that
city; and you will break the envelope, and
there you will read the story of thanks for
your Christian generosity long years be-
fore, and how they have heard afar off of
your trouble. And the letter will be so
full of kindly "reminiscences and Christian
coincidence it will be a plaster large enough
to cover up all the deep gashes of your
soul. When we take people into our
houses as Christian guests, We take them
into our sympathies forever. In bort,
Holland, q soldier with a sword at his side
stopped at q house, desiring lodging md
shelter. The woman OF the house at first
refused admittance, saying that the lei
OF the house were not at home; but when
he showed his credentials that he had been
honorably discharged from the army, he
wns admitted and tarried during the night.
In the night time there WAS a knocking Mt
the front door, and two rufians broke in to
despoil that household. No sooner had
they come over the doorsill than the armed
guest, who had primed his piece and
charged it with slues, met them, and tell
ing TIE woman to stand back, l an happy
to say, dropped the " assaulting desper-
a1nne Hard - ~, go lEa1 .-z
are no bandits prowling around to destroy
our houses; but how often ii is that we
end those that have been our guests be-
come our defenders. We give them
shelter first, and then after ward in the
conflicts of life they fought for our repu-
tation, they fought for our property, they
fought for our sonl.
Another reward that comes from Chris
tian hospitality is in the assurance that we
shall have hospitality shown to us and to
ours. In the upturDings of this life who
knows i'll what city or what land we may
be thrown, and how much we may need an
open door? There may come no such
crisis TO us, but OUT children may be
thrown into some such strait. lie who is
in n Christian ann hospitable has a
free pass through all Christendom. 1t may
be hat you will nave been dead fifty years
before any such stress shall come upon
n Of your descendants; but do you not
suppose that Gcd can remember fifty years?
and the Enuckle of the grandchild will be
heard against fine door of some stranger,
and that door will open, and it will be
talked over in ,~ieaven, and it will be said:
THAT mans grandfather, fifty years ago,
gave shelter 10 a stranger, and now a
slrHn er's doc. is open for a grandson"
Among the Greeks, after entertaining
and being entertained, they take a piece of
lead and cut i in two, and the host takes
one-half OF tie piece OF lead and the guest
takes the othtr half as they part. These
two pieces CT lead are handed down from
generation 10 generation, md from family
TO family, and after a while, perhaps one
OF The families in want or in trouble go out
with this one piece of lead and find the
other family with the corresponding piece
OF lead. and 40 sooner is the tally COM
pleted than the old hospitality is aroused
and eternal friendship pledged. So the
memory of Christian hospitality will go
down from generation to generation, and
from family 10 family, and the tally will
never be lost, neither in tais world nor the
world TO CONF.
Mark this: The day will come when We
will all be turned out of ~doors-without
any tXceptioH-bare foot, bare head, no
water III the canteeE, no bread in the
haversack, end We will go in that way into
the future world. And I wonder if eternal
DO spitalities will open before us, and if
We will be received into everlasting habita-
t~ations? Francis Frescohald was q rich
Italian, and he was very merciful and very
hospitable. One DAY an Englishman by
the name of Thomas Cromwell appeared ut
bis door asking for shelter and aims, which
we're cheerfnlly rendered. Frescebald
afterward lost all his property, became
very poor, and wandered up into England,
and n day he saw a procession passing,
and 10! it was the Lord Chancellor of En-
gland. and 10! the Lord Chancellor of En-
gland was Thomas Cromwell, the very man
whom he had once befriended down in
Italy. The Lord Chancellor at the first
glance of frescohald recognized him and
aissiounted from his carriage, threw his
arms around hin and embraced him, paid
his debts, invited him to his house and
said: "Here are ten pieces Of money TO
pay Tor the bread yon gave me, and here
are ten pieces of money TO provide for the
horse you loaned me, and here are four
bags, in each of which are 400 ducats.
Take them and be we'll" So it will
lie at last with us. If we entertain Christ
in the person of His disciples in this
world, when We pass up into the next
country we will meet Christ in a regal
procession, and He will pour all the
wealth of Heaven into our lap and open
before us everlasting hospitalities. And
. how tame are the richest entertainments
can give on earth compared with the
regal munificence which Christ will display
before our souls in Heaven! l was read
ing the account which Thomas Fuller
gives OF the entertainment provided by
George Neville. Among other things for
that banquet they had $50 quarters of
wheat, l0i tuns of wine, so oxen, 5000
300 cranes, 200 kids, 1000 pigeons,
1000 rabbits, 20i bitterns, 300 pheasants,
500 patridges, 400 plover, 100 quail, 100
curlews, 800 hot pasties, 1000 cold veni-
son pasties, 1000 custards-the Earl of
acting as steward, and servitors
zoe. O., what a grand feast was
but then compare it with the provis-
ion which God has made for US on high;
that great banquet hour: the IA, 900 as
all the harps and trumpets of
as the orchestra; the vintage of the
hills poured into the tankards; all
The fruit of the orchards of God piled OH
the golden platters; the angels of the Lord
for cup bearers, and the once folded starry
banner of the blue sky flung out over the
while seated at the head of the table
shall be the One who eighteen centuries
ago declared: 81 was a stranger and We
took me ill.," Our sins %pardoned. may We
all mingle in those Inequalities!
Health Of London Sewermen.